NCAA Basketball: Top 25 team frontcourts for 2022-23 season

16. Auburn Tigers

Last year’s duo of Jabari Smith and Walker Kessler makes the case for being the best frontcourt in all of NCAA Basketball. Both are gone but Coach Bruce Pearl did a good job reloading inside. It includes another five-star freshman in Yohan Traore, a 6’11 forward with two-way potential as a scoring threat and a capable defender.

Traore isn’t the scorer that Smith was but he may have more of an all-around impact. He has NBA potential but will need to improve his scoring a bit. Still, he’s a quality frontcourt player that can operate at both the four and five-spots.

The player to watch will be Morehead State transfer Johni Broome. The 6’10 forward averaged 16.8 ppg, 10.5 rpg, and 3.9 blocks per game, ranking in the top 3 in all of NCAA Basketball. He was easily the Ohio Valley Defensive Player of the Year but also was a double-double machine and scoring threat. Broome had a career-high 12 blocks and was a rebound away from a triple-double against UT-Martin, while also scoring 32 points against Murray State in the conference tournament.

Going from Kessler to Broome is as good a defensive replacement as Auburn could ask for, as long as the big man can make the transition to the SEC level, something that many mid-major transfer bigs have failed to do. In case he struggles, junior big man Dylan Cardwell can have an impact off the bench. He’s been fairly impressive this offseason and can provide good minutes if needed.